Another Tale of Two Mages
by RustyViko4ever
Summary: Epilogue up everyone! Revisions made. Chp 3+6 now make sense. Vi+Ei go check out the I tree, but find more then dead roots. A diabolical scheme of interpanetary proportions! R&R! PLEEEEASE!
1. To Conde Petie

Another Tale of Two Mages

My sequel to "A Tale of Two Mages"

Basically, it just follows the same timeline. 

But now there are some new things going on...

Adventurous things!

Eiko had finally settled in to her new home with Vivi in the Black Mage Village. Actually, it wasn't really the Black Mage Village anymore, now that the Genomes were living there as well, but they didn't really seem to care what the village was called. They were all getting along well, and both Mages and Genomes had learned a lot more about life in their respective categories. 

It had taken Eiko some time to get used to this new lifestyle. For one thing, she had only brought the clothes she was wearing with her. Fortunately, Mikoto had some spare clothes to lend her until she could make her own. That took her a while too, since she had never used a needle and thread before in her life. But, as Vivi had said, Mikoto was much nicer these days, and helped her out quite like an older sister would; assuming she was a nice one, anyway.

There was one thing Eiko got used to right away, though: the food. Food in Lindblum Castle had been almost nauseatingly rich in her opinion, so when she first sunk her teeth into a roasted owl breast, she practically fainted in ecstasy. It wasn't too rich, and it wasn't bland either; it was just perfect, and tasted delicious! Vivi hadn't been kidding about that.

The fruits were fresh picked, and though the water was a little dirty, it had a certain flavor to it that Eiko liked. There were other good things to eat other then owl and fruits, of course. Nuts of all sorts could be found in the woods, as well as small game and the occasional Zemzellet. They didn't actually taste very good by themselves, but their feathers could be used to make quite the seasoning. As was later made apparent to Eiko, Quina had stayed in the Black Mage Village for some time, teaching them what and what not to eat, and how to prepare it best.

Eiko had encountered one other difficulty: a place to stay. Vivi was the only person who had any extra room at all, and that extra room consisted of was some extra space in the same room that he slept in. For a long time, they worked on making her a dwelling of her own, but until they completed that, Vivi and Eiko just made sure to be very careful when entering the bedroom. 

Fortunately, Eiko and Vivi managed to finish the dwelling, have Eiko learn how to sew her own clothes, as well as make a few sets, by the time Regent Cid showed up to check on her as he had promised to do. She appeared totally self-sustained and in no need of assistance whatsoever. Cid, though still disappointed that his daughter had decided to live in such a place, was glad to see her in good condition. He assured her that he would be back again, but not for quite a lot of time. 

It was shortly after her father had left -- about 3 months after she had ran away from Lindblum -- that Eiko had an odd thought. What was the situation at the Iifa Tree? Somehow or another, neither she nor Vivi had seen it since Zidane attempted his heroics there. There had been no need, really; Zidane informed them all of its decayed and rotten state. But still, she wanted to see it for herself. So one day, she sought Vivi out to talk with him.

"Vivi! Can I talk with you?" she asked, finding him in search of a small beast to roast.

"Of course you can, Eiko," he said, lowering his hand that had been searching for a target. "You can always talk with me."

She smiled, laughing in her innocent way, coming up to him and giving him a 'hello' hug and kiss. He returned it, and then their conversation resumed.

"I was just wondering if we could go and check out the Iifa Tree together."

Vivi quirked a brow. "Why? It's nothing but a gnarled pile of roots, really."

Eiko pouted a bit. "Aw, come on, you don't know that. Besides, even if it is, why not just for old-time's sake? If you think about it, the Iifa tree was the sight for a lot of maturing on your part. And you know that both Dagger and I got an Eidolon there. Can't we go, please?"

Vivi sighed a bit, shaking his head softly, though smiling and then chuckling a bit. "Okay, sure. It's not like we have anything better to do. Do we?"

With a satisfied grin on her face, Eiko shook her head. "Nope."

"Great. When do you want to go?" Vivi asked, thinking about any preparations that he might have to make.

"As soon as possible... like, now, for instance," she said with an innocent smirk on her face. Vivi was not as startled as he normally would have been, but that was probably because he had now lived with Eiko for so long. She had a habit of springing things like this on him.

"Ah... well, I guess. We better tell Mikoto first, though. And is there anything we want to bring?"

Eiko shook her head. "Nah. I'll go tell Miko, you just hurry up and roast something! We don't want to leave on an empty stomach, do we?"

"Definitely not. See you soon then, Eiko," Vivi said, chuckling inwardly. Ever since Mikoto and Eiko had become friends, a phrase had been developed for them: the Ico sisters. They would call Mikoto the M sister and Eiko the E sister. It wasn't as funny as it used to be, and it was more of a habit then anything else now, though. Vivi put those thoughts aside and tended to the business of locating a rabbit of some sort. Luckily, he spotted one rather quickly, and a nice meal was ready by the time Eiko had returned.

"Yum! Rabbit! Thanks, Vivi!" Eiko said, chomping into the portion of meat that Vivi had placed on a stick.

"You're welcome. Shall we?"

"Indeed we shall."

And, with hands wrapped around each other's backs, they made their way out of the woods, and towards Conde Petie.

Oooh, can you guess what happens next? Well, you'll just have to review to urge me on, won't you?? Hahaha! Oh, I shouldn't say things like that. I'm sorry. The next chapter will come soon, whether you review or not. But please review anyway, because it makes me write faster!


	2. Tha Ceremony!

Next chapter! Yay!

Vivi and Eiko moved really fast, after they left the woods. On the open plains of the Outer continent, they could use the Float-Aero combination without worrying about running into trees. So, the two flew to Conde Petie in about 10 minutes. Setting down, they made their way inside, and were immediately greeted by one of the dwarves.

"Rally-Ho!" he shouted.

"Rally-Ho!" they replied. That taken care of, they made their way into the bridge-like building, and instantly attempted to make their way out through the other end. But, it seemed dwarf custom was still the same as ever.

"Excuse me, but can we pass?"

"Nae, ye kinnae pass! Only tha newlyweds kin pass!"

Eiko and Vivi looked to each other, Eiko smiling oddly and Vivi sighing. He actually recalled marrying Quina, oh so long ago, just to get through with Zidane and Dagger... but this time he didn't have to get through. And he wasn't so sure he wanted to if it meant having to marry Eiko. Then again, it was just a silly dwarf custom... and she would never give him any peace if he didn't take her. Vivi nodded to her in an acknowledging way.

"All right, mister dwarf, but we'll be back!"

"Err... yeah, we'll be back."

"Rally-ho!"

Eiko giggled with excitement as Vivi shook his head, sighing a bit.

"Somehow I get the idea that the only reason you wanted to visit the Iifa tree was so that we would have to get married," Vivi suggested.

Eiko was shocked. "No! I really want to check it out! I just considered the ceremony here to be an added bonus."

Vivi shrugged. "If you say so. Let's just hurry up and get this over with, okay?"

Eiko chuckled. "Aw, come on! Let's cherish the moment!"

"Fine. Like we said earlier, there isn't much better to do, is there?"

"Nope!" Eiko beamed. As they made their way back into the main part of the building, they had the fortune to run right into the High Priest.

"Oy! Do ye two wish ta undergo tha ceremony?" he asked, mostly out of jest. When the both smiled and said yes, he was rather surprised.

"Oh! Well then, let tha ceremony begin!" he announced. In a matter of moments, Vivi and Eiko had found themselves on top of the ceremony platform. It was a short while after that that the blessings began. Vivi and Eiko held each other by the hand, and soon enough the ceremony was complete. Feeling it rather appropriate, they closed in and kissed each other deeply, wrapping their arms around each other and sending their tongues into each other's mouth. They didn't continue for too long, as they did indeed have places to go and things to see, but they had something figured out for show. After breaking the kiss, Vivi shouted.

"To the Sanctuary!"

In one swift motion, he lifted Eiko up and proceeded to carry her out of Conde Petie, both of them exchanging vibrant Rally-ho's with the dwarves as they passed. After Vivi set her down, Eiko giggled a bit.

"That was fun! Carry me some more, Vivi!"

Laughing, Vivi shook his head. "Sorry, m'love. I can only carry you after you give me a kiss."

Eiko joined in with the laughter. "All right then. Pucker-up, butter cup!"

Once more, they experience a lip lock and a tongue-tie, and Vivi proceeded to carry Eiko for about 60 yards after that. He could have gone farther, but she actually wanted to walk. As they continued onward, Vivi had to wonder a few things.

"Hey... don't you think the Dwarves would have found out about the Iifa Tree? It doesn't seem to be much of a sanctuary to me anymore. For that matter, it never did. Dwarves sure are weird, aren't they?" 

Eiko nodded. "Yeah. But one thing is for sure; they know how to handle a wedding! Not stuffy or boring like one you'd expect in Lindblum."

Vivi rubbed his chin, (yes, he has a chin), thoughtfully. "Indeed. But I wonder... what if there's something about the Iifa tree that the Dwarves know and we don't? I mean, maybe before Kuja or Garland ever started using it to make mist and cycle souls, the Iifa tree was different. Like some sort of place resonating in holy energy, you know?"

Eiko tilted her head to the side. "Maybe," she said, then returning her head back to the normal position as they continued walking, "though it isn't very likely. I just think that the Dwarves are out of it or something. I mean, what's with that Rally-ho thing?"

Vivi shrugged. "I don't know. Guess it's a good idea that you suggested for us to go, huh?"

Smirking, Eiko agreed. "Yup. All of my ideas are good ones! You should know that by now, dear."

Vivi blinked. "Dear?"

Eiko burst out in laughter. "Oh come on, Vivi! We're married! We have to use odd pet-names for each other, like dear, honey, and sweetie; you know, sappy, mushy stuff!"

Vivi laughed on with her. "If you say so... honey."

They continued to laugh as they made their way along the desolate mountain path. It was amazing how well the monsters had cleared up in the past few years; the combined effects of the Iifa Tree's mist dispersing completely and the skill of passing travelers these days really worked wonders. Not to mention the fact that these creatures evolved instincts to respond to the environment and most all of them now had genes that told them to stay away from people like Eiko and Vivi. As such, they suffered absolutely no attacks. When they emerged on the other side of the mountain, however, they were shocked by what they saw. For the Tree of Iifa was no longer there.

Oh! I have an idea for what replaces it, but you can always email me if you have any certain special ideas. And, as always, review! Thank you. 

PS

The next chapters will be longer. I promise. :)


	3. Down the rabbit hole...

What happened to the Iifa Tree? Read and see...

Despite the fact that it had always been there, and had roots branching all over Gaia, the Iifa Tree was somehow not there. Eiko whimpered a bit. Vivi just stood there, eyes wide and mouth slowly dropping.

"W-what happened, Vivi? Where is it? I mean... what happened?"

Vivi shook his head. "No clue. But I bet it has something to do with that," he said, pointing to the mist filled crater that occupied the space the Iifa Tree once had. But it wasn't Iifa Mist... it was some other sort. It was a pale white, almost milky in appearance, and it seemed to be a lot thicker.

"You don't think... that any of our old enemies are responsible for this, do you?" Eiko asked worriedly. Vivi pondered.

"Well... Garland went down with Terra... and Kuja died with the Iifa Tree... and Necron... well, we can't really find out anything until we go and check it out. After all of the weird things that we've seen, I've got a pretty open mind about this. Come on, let's have a look."

Eiko stared at him with a trace of horror. "Are you serious? What if it IS Necron? We'll be dead meat!"

Vivi considered this for a moment. "I don't think it is... I mean... look! It's white and foamy. Almost looks like a white spell. There's no way he could have done that."

"I guess... okay. Let's go see what's going on."

The two mages made their way down the mountain path, and out onto the plains that surrounded the crater. There was no sight of any living thing in the area, with the possible exception of that strange, fog-like substance that oozed out of the hole in the ground. It seemed to reach out to each of their senses; it almost captivated the viewer's gaze, produced a feathery touch, an indescribable smell, the slightest humming noise, and even a taste to match its scent. As they drew closer to the... impact, they supposed, sight, the fog became thicker. Eiko shivered a bit.

"Vivi... this is getting kind of creepy. My horn is tingling, and-- what was that? Did you hear something, Vivi?"

He shook his head. "Nothing but the weird humming."

Eiko wore a frightened face. "Well... I thought I heard someone singing... and in a really spooky voice, too."

Vivi looked up for a moment, considering. "It's probably your horn. I think that this fog, or whatever it is, holds a recording of something in it, and you must be more in tune to it because of your horn."

She squealed. "Vivi! How can you be so calm? Aren't you scared about what's in that crater? Or what this stuff is?"

He blinked a bit. "Oh... well, at first I was kind of anxious, but I realized that thinking about fears only makes them worse. I think that we should worry about whatever we see once we see it. Leaving it up to our imagination usually makes it a lot worse."

Eiko nodded, though a bit hesitantly. "Yeah... you've got a point there, Vivi. I'm really glad I married a smart guy like you!"

Vivi chuckled a bit. "That's the spirit! Now let's go see what's in that crater!"

"Yeah!"

Stepping up their pace to a jog, Vivi and Eiko soon reached the crater's edge. The fog there was so thick that they couldn't even see down into the chasm, so they would have to go down the edge. This would prove to be difficult, though, since it was incredibly steep.

"Well. Guess we should find some rope or something, huh Eiko?" Vivi asked, still looking down in the chasm. He waited for a little bit, but heard no answer. Looking over at his new wife, he asked, "Eiko?" She wasn't there. Vivi started to panic.

"Eiko! Where are you?"

He then started to hear a scrabbling noise from inside the crater. Fearing it might be a monster of some sort, he aimed his hands at the crater's lips and prepared to cast Flare on whatever ugly creature decided to show its face. Ironically enough, a pretty face with a horn on its forehead showed up; Eiko's face. 

"Come on, slow poke! I've already found something down there!" Eiko urged, sliding down the edge again. Vivi stared blankly for a moment, then sighed and laughed in a somewhat pitiful way as he moved to follow Eiko. She turned out to be correct, as it was, and there was a flat platform just a few feet underneath the distance of vision from topside. Vivi and Eiko met on that platform.

"Man! The fog here is so thick! This humming is starting to get annoying," Vivi stated.

"Humming? Oh, right, the humming! I don't even hear it anymore. Just a soft, soothing melody," Eiko replied.

Vivi stared at her. "Melody, huh? Well, as long as you're okay. So, what do you think this platform is for? It seems to be artificial," Vivi observed, kicking it with his foot. It made a sound that echoed across the crater walls; going deep down and then coming right back up. And, they heard something else come up with it. Eiko and Vivi moved slowly through the fog towards it, and discovered a lead shaped platform. Upon closer inspection, the pair noticed that it was attached to a thorny column.

"Vivi... we've seen this before. This is a part of the Iifa Tree."

Vivi nodded in silence. Eiko continued.

"Well... why is it here, but the rest of it gone? I mean, what the heck happened here?" she asked.

"I don't know. I guess... maybe some force came here and decided to turn this into a base of some sort," Vivi suggested.

"So weird. Well, we've come this far. Let's have a look!"

And before Vivi could protest or agree, Eiko had jumped on the leaf. And, unlike how it had been before, it started glowing. As such, Vivi rushed to get on, and did so just in time. The leaf began its downward spiral, the green powder protecting them from the wind. The fog's noise started increasing in volume.

"Where do you think this is taking us, Vivi?"

He shrugged. "Anything could be down there. Suppose we'll find out soon enough, won't we?"

Eiko nodded in agreement. "Yeah. But... before we reach whatever's down there, maybe we should give each other a little comfort?"

Vivi smiled. "Sure. Come here, honey."

They gave each other a big, warm hug. But just as Vivi as about to start giving Eiko's cheek a few kisses, she cried out in pain and clutched her ears, curling up on the floor.

"Eiko! What's wrong?"

Through gritted teeth, she tried to respond. "The music... it's painful! Wailing in my head! Screaming at me!"

She breathed heavily through it while Vivi knelt down by her side, placing a hand on her back. Eiko screamed louder.

"Ah! Don't touch me!" 

Vivi did as she said and backed off, his own head starting to ring. Eiko's breathing started to return to normal, though somewhat slowly, and eventually she was able to stand up. Her face was pitiful.

"What happened, Eiko?"

Teardrops formed in her eyes, and Vivi moved in to give her a comforting hug. However, she put up two hands and shook her head.

"Stop. Stay away."

Vivi stopped, and backed up. "What's going on, Eiko?"

She sat down, and sniffling, she began to tell the tale. "Well... eventually I was able to understand the screaming. Whatever it was, it was upset about our feelings for each other. It seems to have some sort of hate for love, if you can imagine that. I don't think we're going to be very warmly welcomed when we reach the bottom of this tower."

Vivi stared blankly, gaze dropping to the floor. "Wow... but... why didn't I hear it?"

"Like you said. It's my horn that lets me hear the true sound of the fog."

Vivi blinked a few times. "Well... there goes my theory about it being a recording. That was a response... not a recording. What kind of thing are we dealing with here?" he wondered aloud.

Sniffing a bit more, then drying her eyes, Eiko stood up. "I think we're about to find out. Look!"

She pointed downward from the leaf. The fog was no longer there, and a series of colored rings seemed to be on the wall of the crater. And, farther down, they could see a large platform that had some sort of barrier to stop the progression of the leaf. It appeared as though Eiko and Vivi would be departing the leaf very soon.

What will they find? What is the fog? What the heck is going on? You'll find out in the next chapter. Neiner! Remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I write. Thank you.


	4. The perfect world.

As was promised, you will now discover what happened to the Iifa Tree. I'm SERIOUS this time. And you will find out a lot more too! So sit back and enjoy.

The leaf came to a sickeningly fast stop, and it took Eiko and Vivi a while to regain their composure. After doing so, they both moved over to inspect the barrier. It seemed to be floating over the path of the leaf, and it glowed a strange golden color. Vivi tapped it lightly, and it made a ripple effect. He then tried to put his hand through it, but found that it just molded around it. Eiko and Vivi exchanged confused looks.

"Well... what do we do now?" Vivi asked.

"We press on! Duh. We have some stuff to find out! Now let's go!" Eiko exclaimed, grabbing Vivi's free hand and tugging him along in a forceful stride.

"Ah! Let go! I can walk by myself, thanks," Vivi said, a little indignant.

"Of course you can. So let's go!"

And without another word, they moved off of the platform and into the cavern that it sprouted out of. It branched off in two directions, one moving horizontally and the other one angling downward. Deciding that they didn't want to go down any further then they already had, Vivi and Eiko proceeded down the horizontal cavern. It was made entirely of rock, but the floor had been flattened out. And, it seemed as if the walls themselves were giving off some sort of pale glow. Eiko ran a hand along one wall, and it started to slowly change color. 

"It certainly doesn't seem like this was a natural occurrence, huh Vivi?" Eiko asked, looking to him as his gaze wondered about the tunnel.

"Well, I had my doubts ever since the beginning. But this floor is the clincher for me. I mean, everything else pointed towards the work of a person, but it could have been some sort of fluke. But this has no other explanation then the purposeful intentions of someone... or something."

A gust of wind seemed to blow through the tunnel. 

"Vivi? Um... I get the feeling we're being watched," Eiko said, concerned.

Vivi nodded a bit. "I have to agree with you on that. But... by what?"

"I think you mean who."

That was a new voice. Eiko and Vivi froze in their tracks, and started to turn around.

"Stop right there," the new voice commanded.

"Now. You have come into our home, so we will have to disarm you. We wouldn't want any fights breaking out, would we?"

"W-what do you mean, disarm? We're completely unarmed!" stammered Eiko. Neither she nor Vivi could see the source of this new voice, but the could tell that it was flat and almost emotionless, but with the faintest trace of happiness on it. It was male... they thought... but it was hard to tell. Whatever it was started speaking again.

"Now, we can't have you lying like that. You are both mages; we will now nullify your magic. Do not move, unless you wish for a more painful restraint."

Before Vivi or Eiko could even decide on what to do, the rock around them changed color to an iridescent glow. The odd light enclosed the two, and within only a few seconds it faded back into nothingness. Vivi looked at his palms, and Eiko did the same. Both realized that they had indeed been stripped of their magic.

"You may turn around now," the voice told them, and they did so. What they saw was rather difficult for them to take in; it didn't seem to be male or female. It had no hair, and its face was completely bland. Its eyes were a dull gray, and its body form was impossible to make out, as it was covered in a robe that seemed to hang like a curtain from a rim around its shoulders. Even its arms were encased in a similar material, and only the faintest traces of fingers could be seen. It stared back at them with an almost smiling face.

"You must have questions. If you wish to find out anything, simply follow me. You must come to the resting room. Ask me what you will on the way."

And with that, the pale-faced thing brushed past Vivi and Eiko, leaving them rather dumbfounded, but following in hot pursuit. 

"What is your name?" Eiko asked, thinking that maybe it could betray something about its gender.

"People call me O."

Vivi and Eiko blinked simultaneously. "O? Um... isn't that a little short for a name?" Vivi inquired.

"There is no need to brandish a lengthy name. They cause jealousy for the sake of quality, anyway."

"Jealousy? Your name is O because you worry about people being jealous? So weird..." Eiko commented.

"What makes it, as you put it, 'weird'?" O replied.

"Ah... never mind that. How long have you been living here? And where did you come from?" Vivi asked.

"This has been our home for two weeks now. We are nomads, and go from place to place. Our last home was a place called Jyria."

Vivi and Eiko exchanged confused looks, somewhat frustrated that they had to look at the bland back of O's head and robe. 

"I've never heard of Jyria," Eiko said.

"Of course you haven't. Jyria is a different world," O stated, as if this were not a large deal. Eiko's mouth dropped, and Vivi just stuttered a bit before he could form his response.

"A different world? How did you come here?" he asked.

"Our vessel transgressed the inter-world plane, and located Gaia. Knowing our impact might cause disruption to living things, we searched for the largest mass of dead material we could. What used to be a gigantic tree-shaped entity was that mass, so we landed our vessel here. As a consequence, it was reduced to particle dust. But we have found this area to be a perfect place for our new home."

(Author's note: Not to insult the intelligence of any of you readers, but for those of you who didn't just figure it out, the Iifa Tree was incinerated as the vessel of these freaks landed on Gaia.)

Eiko leaned in to Vivi to whisper to him. "Why do you think that they left their old-world? Maybe they're really here on a mission of conquest!"

"Maybe... but let's just stick around for a little while and find out more," he replied. She nodded in response.

"I will now ask you to please hold your questions for later. We have arrived at the resting-place; you must rest. You will find yourselves to be very much revitalized when you awake."

O stepped aside. Eiko and Vivi stepped cautiously into the room, and observed that the rock was now covered in a bright, white substance of sorts, that was metallic in nature. All through the room were beds; but what was truly irksome was the fact that these beds extended back through the room farther then the eye could see. And all but two of them were filled with sleeping creatures of the same race as O. Eiko and Vivi shivered a bit.

"You want us to rest in here?" Eiko asked, a slight quiver in her voice. O nodded nonchalantly.

"These are optimum sleeping conditions."

Eiko shook her head. "I'm sorry, but that idea just freaks me out. They look like zombies! Now I've got some more questions, Mister O, so you better stuff your nappy time and listen up! Or I'll-"

"Or you'll what? Attack me? What for? What do you hope to accomplish by doing that?"

(Author's note: Should you not be able to tell by now, this concludes that O is a male, as he had no problems with being addressed as a male. Now back to your regularly scheduled fan fiction reading.)

Eiko stopped with her mouth open for a while, and then Vivi came to back her up. "She'll beat some sense into you, that's what! You'll tell us what we want to know, or you get hurt. It's a simple concept."

"Yeah!" Eiko finished. O chuckled softly.

"Oh my. You don't seem to realize that whatever pain you inflict on me will be returned to you one million fold. You see all of my peers back there will not take kindly to me being hurt."

Eiko and Vivi then realized that they were indeed seriously outnumbered. And with their magic gone...

"Hey! Vivi! How are we going to get our magic back?"

"Um... I don't know."

They both looked at O with long faces. O continued to chuckle softly.

"You don't get your magic back. Magic is something to be jealous for, and thus can start fights, and can be used to inflict more pain. In the ideal world, neither jealousy nor pain may exist, so no person in that world can possess magic. Now, you will sleep, and join the ranks of the perfect, or you will be discarded as unfit. The choice is yours."

Eiko was outraged. "D-discarded! Me, unfit! I don't think you know whom you're talking to, O, but no one EVER calls me unfit! You are going to pay for that!"

Just as she was about to charge at O, however, Vivi grabbed her by the shoulders. "Eiko! Get a hold of yourself! Violence isn't going to help us here! If we kill him, we won't have any way to get our magic back!"

"But, he called me, your loving wife, UNFIT! We have to do something!" Eiko protested. Vivi closed his eyes and shook his head, and Eiko started to calm down.

"Your friend is correct, miss. I do know how your magic may be brought back to you."

They both watched him. "We're listening," Vivi said.

"There are those who would oppose our purpose. We have a division of warriors who stay separate from the others and train to defeat our enemies. Should you join us, your strength would be valuable."

Eiko and Vivi both wore disgusted looks. "You actually think that we would fight our own friends?"

O shook his head. "Once you join us, you have no friends, nor enemies. For either relationship activates its counterpart, and this will inevitably lead to more conflict. The perfect world thus has no love, hate, friendships, or rivalries. Only the desire to bring those misguided ones under our supervision."

Eiko gagged, while Vivi just stared at O with a horrified look. 

"What kind of monsters are you, that you would sacrifice love for the sake of preventing conflict? Why don't you just kill everyone? Wouldn't that do the same thing?" Vivi asked. O grew bored.

"We are not so vicious as Necron. We wish, in fact, only to preserve life to its fullest, for it is what gives the universe purpose. In fact, we know of your success against the destruction of Necron, and thus concluded that your planet is full of power, and the ability to do harm. This is why we chose Gaia as our next target. Now, I am tired of answering your questions. All will be made clear to you once you join us. And since you will die if you do not, there is no more point in your interrogation. So I ask you one more time: do you join the ranks of our warriors, or do you sacrifice the gift of life?"

Vivi just shook his head softly while he looked down at the floor. Eiko screamed at him. "You jerk! Of course the answer is no! And we'll be back, and we'll stop all of you and your evil! Just you wait and see! Come on, Vivi, we're leaving!"

O just continued his soft chuckled. As Eiko and Vivi rushed out of the room, a portion of the rock ahead of them began to glow a strange, brownish color. And the second they ran past it, their motion came to a slow but sure stop, until they slumped down on the floor and fell into a deep, dark sleep. O proceeded to take them back to the resting-place, and put them in the two empty beds. What diabolical things he would do to them from this position, only time would tell. 

Well...? What do you think? If you think this is going in the wrong direction, then I will redo this chapter and make it even better. But if you like where this is headed, then review and tell me so I can be all happy and enthusiastic and exited so that I can do another chapter!


	5. Mistakes, Confusion

New chapter. Yadda, yadda. Prepare yourselves!

Mikoto paced back and forth, her tail twitching pensively on occasion, as she waited for Vivi and Eiko to return. Sure enough, the Iifa tree was a day's travel either way by foot, but she knew all about their little float-aero spell combination. Thus, even if they stopped to examine the tree for an entire day, the longest they could have taken would be 2 days after the night of the day they left. But it had been 3 days, and there was still no sign of them at all. She was starting to get worried about her adopted little sister. Really, she had to be worried about herself, as well; if a summoner as powerful as her, especially one who was travelling with a black mage like Vivi, could be stopped by something, then what would happen if that something came for anyone else?

Of course, from a logical standpoint, such a something couldn't possibly exist on Gaia. For there was no one with the technology to make something like that, and there was no sort of creature who could spawn it. So, if there was something powerful enough to beat Vivi and Eiko present on Gaia, it would have had to come from another world. But that was impossible. Wasn't it?

Even still, Mikoto couldn't help but wonder what exactly was holding up those two. After much pacing, tail twitching and waiting, she decided finally to go out and look for them. Plucking her dagger off the wall, she holstered it and went off in search of one of her fellow Genomes. She told him of her mission, and without any more talk she was off. She raced along at a rather impressive pace; she was Garland's perfect Genome, after all. After all of these years, she had not stopped her physical training, so she was just as strong and fast as Zidane, if not more so. As such, she did not even bother going around the plateau to get up to Conde Petie; instead, she climbed it straight out of the forest. 

Actually, she had done this many times before. She had even strung a series of ropes and foot holds down the face of the plateau to make climbing faster in the future, should it be necessary. It was a very tall plateau, and would take a few hours to climb, but with all of the aids she had installed, it would be a rather easy journey. In fact, she didn't need to stop for an entire hour, and that was only because she noticed a small spring bubbling up inside one of the cavernous spaces of the cliff. It was always a good idea to stop for a drink when possible, so she did so for about two minutes. After that, she resumed her climb, and within the next hour she was up. Though somewhat exhausted, she could still walk, and had cut off hours from the roundabout trip.

Her real troubles didn't start until she made it to Conde Petie. The bridge-like building was problematic because, as was still the custom, only newlyweds could pass. Mikoto had no intention whatsoever of getting married, but didn't want to destroy the poor little creatures either. She decided that as long as she was here, she should search the place for Eiko and Vivi. They just might be there.

Or, they could be in the clutches of extra-Gaian invaders, as was the case. O had not been hesitant to probe deep into the minds of those two, to begin the process of reforming them to the wills of his mistress Clariya. Clariya, the ruler and overseer of perfection, was the very embodiment of perfection itself; she was as good as it got. Except for one, fatal flaw: perfection is defined by the goals that it exists to attain. In Clariya's case, this was to attain the perfection of all things; to make the universe fit for her presence. The problem with this goal was that it was impossible to achieve.

As time went by, she had gathered more and more followers, inspired by her beauty and drive to carry out her every bidding. The process started out slowly, however, and it was some time before she could efficiently bring souls under her command. Centuries even. However, as was her design, she grew neither old nor ugly, and would not until her goal had been attained. 

Such a being as Clariya, one might think, could not exist. But, the universe contains an intricate balance of all things. As Necron existed to end all life, Clariya existed to preserve all life. As it happened, neither of these outcomes were preferable by most life; as such, there would be a balance powerful enough to outweigh both Clariya and Necron. Clariya knew this well, and she was comfortably sure that Necron did as well. He had, after all, been defeated in combat, and was now little more then a memory, and would regain his power at a sickeningly slow pace. Such a power, Clariya thought, was not only a threat to all living things, but to her and her goal as well. It needed to be neutralized as fast as possible. Little did she realize that this could not be done. 

Not in totality, at any rate. The sources of the power could be cleansed of their violent wills, but the power itself was not tangible, and would stay with them for as long as they lived. O was discovering this the hard way. For, no matter how he tried to break through the wills of those two mages, there seemed to be something blocking it. It was an emotion of some sort that he was not familiar with. Well, most emotions he wasn't familiar with for that matter, but it was an incredibly powerful one. He knew how to break it, though. A visit to Mistress Clariya would do the trick.

As O prepared to walk the two delinquents to see his sovereign, a fellow Clariyan approached him and presented a salute to him. 

"You have something to report, M?" O responded.

M nodded. "Indeed, O. I have a new status analysis on the transformer fog."

"Excellent. Let's hear it."

"It has made its way into the mountains, and a fair amount has seeped onto the plains. It is shown that the bridge-like building has been exposed. They will be ready to accept Mistress Clariya's will in three hours."

"Good, good. I shall inform the Mistress immediately. I was heading to her chamber anyway. Have a productive day."

A 'productive' day was the closest thing to a farewell that the Clariyans knew. After all, they didn't exactly have any sort of relationship, whether it be good or bad, so all they ever did were the necessities of a social creature's life. In a way, they were like Termites. Endlessly functioning only to ensure that they and their colony survive a healthy life, so that they can continue to reproduce for just the same reason. And all the while, they served under the will of the Queen, or in their case, Mistress Clariya. 

O put the sleeping bodies of Eiko and Vivi onto a pair of hover carts, and floated them over to the platform they had departed the leaf from, oh so long ago. He now pushed them down the sloped tunnel, and followed its winding path for a good 10 minutes. Finally, he approached a door. It was circular in form, and made of a dully warm metal. He knocked on it once, and it rolled away to the side, revealing a larger space. It was still made of rock, but instead of a circular tunnel, it was a large, cubical room. For the most part, it seemed completely empty. There was one thing in it, however, that O moved to activate. A floating pedestal in the middle of the floor was that thing, and after leaving Eiko and Vivi behind in the cube room, he went down to the next floor with it. It was here that he came face to face with Mistress Clariya. Or actually, face to ankle.

As a counter-part to Necron, Clariya had a very similar size to Necron. Of course, on some worlds, this size was normal; on others, it was small. It just happened to be huge on most worlds. The size of the people under her sovereignty was actually determined by the average size of all of those people. In fact, most of their attributes were. Anyway, O did not step off of the pedestal, but instead waited for it to start going up again. As it reached a height such that O could look Clariya in her intoxicatingly beautiful face, it froze in mid-air. 

The room they were in was, in fact, not really a room. Rather, it was a portion of pitch-black space, which seemed to stretch on forever. Clariya sat upon a throne of iridescence, hands in her lap and head hung low. She was deep in thought. O waited in silence, until eventually the titanic creature took notice of him. As a friendly smile spread across her face, there was a flash of light, and she was suddenly the same size as O, floating in the empty space in front of him. The only reason for this was to make conversation easier, of course. It took far too much of her energy to stay this way for long. Her throne floated her to a talking distance from O.

"Milady," he said, bowing.

"Welcome. There is something I may help you with, correct?" she asked in one of the most innocent voices that could exist. O nodded, and related to her the information about the mist. She nodded softly.

"I see. Then, you shall prepare the retrievers. The time has come to bring in more wayward souls."

"Of course, Milady. There is one other thing I was hoping that you could deal with."

"The two on the floor above us, correct? Despite the massive amounts of fog they have taken in, they still refuse to accept our perfection, because something is blocking it, correct?"

Nodding, O replied. "Your knowledge is infinite, Mistress Clariya. You are correct, as always. I thought that you could break through to them."

"O, why is it that these two are so important? If they refuse to bend, then why do you not discard them as unfit?"

O became a little nervous. "B-because, Milady, they both possess incredible powers. They would make a valuable addition to our warriors."

"And why is it that you would want such powerful beings among our ranks, if they seem so repellant to our cause, even in a state of unconsciousness?"

Now O was frightened. "Only because of their power, Milady. I would never wish for them to damage our, I mean your, perfection. I merely thought that if they were to be influenced by you, there would be no need to worry."

Clariya continued to wear a smile, all the time just speaking calmly and innocently, and that was part of what worried O so much. It was impossible to tell what she was truly feeling. 

"A correct assumption, O. My influence will bring them to us, permanently and without question. But you have failed to realize that these are the partners of those who we came here to destroy. They are too powerful to exist in perfection, and thus need to be eliminated. This power is a real threat to us, O, and by influencing their allies, we will only bring the threat to us. You should not even have brought them here. We do not yet have the power to deal with such things."

"I... I... you're right, as always, Mistress. I am not fit to be in your presence."

Clariya's throne floated right up next to the pedestal, and one of her soft, delicate hands reached out to touch his cheek. 

"You have served your people in life. May you rest eternally in death."

O stuttered softly, until his eyes fell shut and the blood stopped flowing through his body. In an instant, his body was reduced to a pile of dust. The pedestal flipped over, and the dust fell down into the darkness of Clariya's chamber. Stepping onto the pedestal, she rose up into the cube room, and glanced upon Vivi and Eiko, her sweet smile now replaced with a concerned frown. Waving her hand over their forms, they disappeared in a flash of sparkles, and found themselves in a pair of beds in Conde Petie. She erased their memory of the crater, and all of the other things involving what used to be the Iifa tree when she did this. That should give her and her people plenty of time to prepare for those who had defeated Necron. Of course, she might be able to defeat them all by herself, but she would be incredibly weakened, and her people would decrease immensely in number. Since her purpose was to preserve all life, she couldn't let that happen willingly.

So, with the danger redirected, Clariya returned to her chamber, and back to her normal size, to consider more on just how they would prepare for the coming attack. For that matter, she wondered where Necron was and what that infidel was doing. He, too, would have to be destroyed, as he was her greatest enemy. They had skirmished with each other many times before, but neither of them had been powerful enough to beat the other. If she could just find out where he was hiding, regaining his power, she could end his existence, perhaps. Then, of course, there was the ever-pressing issue of where the third balance was... she knew that most life did not desire her wish, or Necron's wish, and no matter how foolish that notion was, it meant there would be something to combat both of them. She realized that it could be those creatures on Gaia, but how? They may have been able to defeat Necron, but they didn't destroy him, and they were not one. Rather, they were many, all banding together to help one another.

Could that be the secret to their power?

Clariya, in all of her wisdom, did not know. All she knew was that if the counter-balance was indeed within those who lived on this planet, she would need to come up with one super plan. Perhaps if she could disrupt their togetherness, she could take them out one by one. Yes, that would work wonderfully. But first, she would have to find them all. Oh well. Time would bring them to her. And then she would begin the end. Clariya let out a soft chuckle, and the darkness around her seemed to swallow it up. Closing her eyes, she faded into her dream of total perfection of life, ruled under her. Clariya, ruler and overseer of perfection; no, Clariya, ruler and overseer of TOTAL perfection. Yes, that was what she would be. It made her head spin with delight just to think about it. 

Meanwhile, in Conde Petie, a pair of veyr startled Dwarves discovered Eiko and Vivi asleep in their beds.

"Aiyee! What're ya doin' in me bed, girly?"

Mikoto was attracted to the screaming. She had already searched the place over thoroughly; could she have missed something? As she located her friends, she was indeed amazed at how she could have missed them. In fact, she couldn't figure it out. She approached Eiko and shook her.

"Eiko! What's going on? How did you get here?"

"Ahh! Stop it, Miko! I'm tired... let me sleep!"

Mikoto slapped her. "Wake up! Something very strange is going on, and you aren't going to sleep until I know what it is!"

The slap had brought Eiko back into reality, and also made her slap back on instinct. After rubbing her cheek a bit, Eiko took in her surroundings.

"Ugh... how did I get here?"

"That's what I asked you."

"You did? Cause... I don't remember how I got here. I just remember... falling asleep somewhere. Is Vivi here?"

Loud snoring from the bed adjacent to her answered that question.

"Oy, tail girly! What're ye mates doin in mah sister 'n mah bed?"

Eiko was out with that much, and when she and Mikoto worked together, they got Vivi up and standing as well.

"Mikoto? What are you doing here?" Vivi asked.

"I came looking for you because I was worried," she stated.

"What? Worried? But, we were only gone for less then two days!" Eiko explained. Mikoto shook her head.

"Wrong. You've been gone for over three days."

Vivi and Eiko's jaws dropped. 

"What, you mean you don't remember all that happened during that time?"

After popping their mouths back into place, Eiko and Vivi shook their heads.

"Great. Just great. All we need now is to be attacked by some other-worldly invaders, and then we'll be really confused."

As if on cue, the dwarves noticed some men and women in white clothing coming up the mountain path. It seemed to cause a lot of commotion in the building, so everyone, including Vivi and Eiko, made their way to the exit. The people in white just marched towards them resolutely, obviously with a purpose. When one of the dwarves ran out to say "Rally-ho!" to them, things started to get really ugly. For at that moment, the one in front pulled out a needle of some sort, and stuck it into the dwarf. He fell to the ground instantly. Muscles tensed, and fingers flexed. Vivi was ready to cast a flare spell without hesitation. But, as he tried to find the magical energy within him, he discovered that it wasn't there.

Okay, I know this is kind of a bad place to cut off, but I NEED to stop the chapter somewhere, right? I just couldn't stop, but now I have to. So, I hope you enjoyed it, review, PUHLEEEEEAZE, and um if you have any suggestions or anything feel free to email me. Peace!


	6. Trance.

Aren't you just dying to know what happens next? Heheh. Enjoy.

The _Invincible_, back in its day, was a truly remarkable airship. After the incident with Kuja and Necron, however, it had seemed to disappear. But, Regent Cid had seen the marvelous piece of engineering, and would not be satisfied with just leaving it wherever it was. He wanted to study it; he knew there were many things to be learned from the mastery of it. It was one of his pet projects to find the thing, and he had been sending out systematic airship searches all over Gaia to find it; assuming it wasn't lying on the ocean floor. That would require much more time to find; they would need purple chocobos galore, not to mention a huge amount of dead peppers. 

Until Cid was certain that the_ Invincible_ was not above water, he would not stop his search. And so it was that the _Hilda Garde 10_, his finest piece of steam-engine technology, flew over the plains that used to be home to the Iifa Tree. That was when the confusion started for the rest of the world.

The pilot saw the fog-like substance down on the plains, and furthermore the crater that used to be the Iifa Tree, and thought they had got off course.

"Captain, Ma'am, this doesn't look right! Seems like there's Mist down there!" he said, beckoning the captain over.

"What? Are you off your block? The Iifa Tree is inert, there can't be any Mist," she said, indignantly.

"B-but I don't think the Iifa Tree made it!"

"Exactly! It's dead!"

"No, I mean it isn't there!" 

"What do you mean it isn't there?"

She rushed over to the view-port and practically lost her lunch.

"It isn't there! Sergeant, are you sure that we're in the right place?" she asked, turning to face him.

"Yes, I am, Captain. I wasn't sure at first, but I looked over all of our landmark orientation logs, and they all indicate that we are right over the Iifa Tree."

"But it isn't there."

"That's what it seems like, Ma'am."

That led to a long silence. They kept looking from each other, to the windows.

"What do you think that stuff down there is, Ma'am?"

"I don't know. Take us back to Lindblum, we need to report this to Regent Cid! Full speed ahead!"

"Aye, aye, Ma'am."

With a sudden lurch, the _Hilda Garde 10_ left its hovering position, and shot off at a speed to rival that of the _Invincible_. Really, the only reason that Cid wanted it now was to learn more about its fuel. Of course, he had much more to worry about now. All of Gaia did. 

"What do you mean your magic is missing? It can't just get up and walk away! Can it?" Eiko shrieked to Vivi.

"I guess so, because I'm plain out! What about you, Eiko?" he asked, concern in his voice.

She held her hands out with the palms up and looked at each one. "No. I can't even feel it."

Mikoto let out a somewhat agitated sigh. "Welcome to reality, you two. Drink some ethers!"

She had prepared before setting off in search of her companions. Knowing they were both mages, and that magic was thusly their best attribute, she decided to bring a few ethers to ensure they could fight, should the need come up. She handed one to both of them, and they both chugged down the bittersweet mixture in seconds.

"There. Now, get ready. Those... things... are coming closer," Mikoto commanded. Vivi and Eiko did just that, but found themselves at a frightening loss. For despite the wonders of the ether mixture, they still couldn't find their magic.

"Miko... the ether didn't help..." Eiko said in a harsh whisper, the people in white drawing ever closer. Most of the dwarves had turned tail and fled by now, hiding in the back of the building. Only a few stood to bar the approach of those in white, holding whatever makeshift weapons they could find. Mikoto had already drawn her dagger, but almost dropped it when she heard Eiko. She looked at her with a shocked expression.

"What do you mean, it didn't help? What else could it be? I mean, you can't just loose your ability to cast magic."

Vivi joined in. "Listen, we can talk about this later. Something tells me that _they_ know a thing or two about all of this. I say we can fight them without magic; they don't look so tough."

Eiko, though a bit reluctantly, nodded. "Right. Time for some serious butt kicking! Right, Miko?"

She nodded. "Right."

Now Mikoto moved up to face the head of the group.

"All right, what do you want?" she asked, impatience present in her voice.

"We are here to take you into perfection. Your minds have already been prepared to accept the knowledge that accompanies it; you will allow us to insert that knowledge into you," he said, in perfect calm. Mikoto spat at his feet.

"No thanks. We don't like solicitors trying to push perfection. You aren't wanted here. So get lost, before it has to get ugly," she sneered at him.

"I see. This is indeed a disappointment. You see; life is a beautiful thing that we wish to preserve. But, if a form of life does not accept perfection, then it is a threat to other life and must be destroyed. May you rest eternally in death, misguided one." He stepped to the side. Behind him was a plethora of armed Clariyans. They had quite a variety of equipment, too. Some of them were obviously mages; others were hand to hand fighters, some of them swords-men, and yet still others who carried some sort of hand-held cannon. Of course, before they could even do anything, Mikoto had grabbed the head of the group by the collar of his robe and stared him in the face.

"Perfection, huh? Well let me tell you something about perfection. I am perfection, buster. I am the result of years of genetic splicing and calculations. I am the perfect angel of death. So, I guess that makes us more enemies then you ever imagined?" Her voice was cool, but with an undertone of such aggression that it made the Clariyan shiver. She threw him to the ground.

"So, who wants some of perfection? I've got plenty of perfect death to do around!" she challenged the assorted warriors. Vivi just stared blankly ahead, and Eiko wore a somewhat horrified look. She had no idea that Mikoto had such a violent inner self. Of course, every word she spoke was true, but neither Eiko nor Vivi had ever heard her talk like that. There was an awkward silence as Mikoto stared down each of the warriors. Vivi and Eiko started edging forward, as did the dwarves. The warriors were unaffected, and stood there, silently, waiting for the other side to make a move. Mikoto decided to go first.

The closest warrior to her was wearing a pair of weapons very similar in nature to Amarant's. She charged towards the female, surprisingly enough, and thrust her dagger at the target's neck. Her claws rose up to block the attack, but it was too little, too late. The blade sunk into her neck, and for good measure, Mikoto twisted it. A gargling sound escaped the throat of the wounded as blood began flowing from the massive gash. The movement was so fast that the others could barely react to it; by the time they charged at Mikoto, she was already assaulting one of the mages. The others tried to close in on her, but were stopped by the vibrant "RALLY-HO" cries that accompanied the assaulting dwarves. Vivi and Eiko were right there beside them. 

The double-clawed warrior had been on the left of the column of warriors, and do to the confined space on the root, that meant that there was a person to the right, front, and right front diagonally of Mikoto. The person in front of her was the mage, and had been her next target, so the first two immediate threats were those other two. One carried a massive, barbed sword, and the other a blaster of some sort. The person with the sword was about to lunge at Mikoto, but had been sent back with a well-placed kick on her part. Her dagger had found home straight through the bleeding heart of the mage, and she had suffered a slight burn in the process. The one with the blaster had been about to shoot her, but found himself being assaulted by dwarves with swords, knives, rusty axes, (shovels and rakes), and other implements of destruction. The three other people at the front of the column, a mage, axe-wielder and seemingly unarmed woman, had to deal with a few dwarves, Eiko and Vivi.

Quite to the disgust of the others, a dwarf had been the first to go. As he was about to plant a sword in the axe-wielder, the weapon with such a heavy edge came crashing through his skull, leaving quite a bloody mess spilled all over the roots. Before anything else could be done, however, another dwarf had come to his aid with a large "RALLY-HO!", sending a spiked fist into the warrior's kneecap. With quite the sickening crunch, it broke right there, sending him to his knees, his axe falling down on his companion mage. The mage had already sent a bit of thunder through each of them, but it wasn't enough to stop them, and no more magic would be spilling out of her. Eiko and Vivi closed in on the unarmed one.

They soon found out why she was unarmed; she had no need. For as they were about to smash fists into her face and stomach, she blocked both, grabbing the fists, and then knocked both down with a push. She rushed at them, and prepared to smash their necks with an axe-kick, but the dwarves who had been assaulting the blaster-armed man rushed over to catch her in the back. This was partially out of companionship, but also for the sake of getting out of Mikoto's way. Eiko and Vivi got up slowly, as the dwarves continued their onward push. It seemed their sheer weight of numbers was doing the trick. Eiko and Vivi decided that they would be safer by Mikoto, so they drew closer to her.

After Mikoto had taken out the mage, she had moved on the swords-man, assaulting him with a dagger-wielding punch to the gut. This caused both massive bleeding and severe nausea. Seeing her window of opportunity open, she knocked him backward to trip up the gun-holders in back. They were fixing aims on them, and that would not do them any good in the heat of the battle. More skirmishes came, but Mikoto barely took any damage at all. Her blows were so efficient, that her opponents could get little more then a missed lunge in at her. She was tiring, however, but Vivi and Eiko were there to back her up, sending their best attempts at martial arts towards the enemy. 

The three noticed the fact that their dwarfish companions were starting to fall back. It was amazing they had pressed on for so long, really, but now the mages and swords were getting the better of their feeble weaponry. The element of surprise was no longer theirs; and with the exception of Mikoto, all of these warriors were far better in combat. Things were starting to close in on the melee that was Mikoto, Vivi, Eiko, and the Clariyans. More dwarves had picked up arms to join the fight, but they had no room to get in. And, since the dwarves had next to no combat experience, all they could do was fight on over the bodies of the fallen, instead of have the weakened retreat and the fresh fighters take their place.

The number of Clariyans had been reduced from around 25 to around 14, but nearly all of the dwarves were dead or weakening. That left Mikoto in the middle with two mages who's magic was non-existent, a tiring arm and a slippery palm. These warriors were very fast; she had to put out all of her best moves just to keep from being hit. Vivi and Eiko, on the other hand, though they were trying their best, had suffered numerous cuts, scrapes, and burns. Both had lost a fair deal of blood; not a terribly high amount, but they would need to fix the problem soon. But things weren't looking any better. Mikoto, noticing this, decided to take charge.

"Get out of here! I'll handle these guys!" she shouted, barely sending a sword away from her face with a crescent kick to its flat side. She turned around through it, sending a back kick to the person who had held the sword, while at the same time sticking her dagger out to gut a claw-holder. Eiko and Vivi had no intention of arguing with her, and were too weak to do much else. As such, they moved out of the place, and just in time to avoid being hit with a purple swirl of energy. It was coming from Mikoto's body.

"It's Trance! Of course!" Vivi shouted. Still, he backed up. He knew what would come next. Dyne was an ugly thing to witness. Mikoto leaped into the air, doing a somersault of sorts, then landing on someone's head. To avoid being gutted by the swords that were pointing up, she jumped backwards, then held her dagger out and shouted.

"Stellar Circle Five!"

A blast of energy blew the warriors back, and then down upon them came the Stellar Circle. Within moments, the massive amount of energy had pummeled all of them to lifelessness. Mikoto breathed heavily, clutching at her chest, the purple energy of Trance dying down. The dwarves were tending to their own wounded, so Eiko and Vivi rushed over to her side.

"Miko! Are you okay?" Eiko asked, naturally concerned.

Through her heavy breaths, Mikoto managed to get a bit out. "They... really... drained me... I need to... rest..."

And with that, her eyes shut and she fell right asleep. Vivi and Eiko took her back into the building, and tucked her into a comfy bed. As they tended to their own wounds, and eventually got to the inventory of the fallen enemy, other things were happening in the sky. Cid had been cruising about, actually on his way to check out the Iifa Tree himself, when he came across the _Hilda Garde 10_. After getting the hovering ships within speaking distance of each other, it was related to Cid how the Iifa Tree really wasn't there. As such, he went to see it for himself, and the _Hilda Garde 10_ headed for Alexandria. Should something nasty be going on, Lindblum's army alone might not be enough.


	7. The Road to War.

Next chapter! Little or no fighting in this one, but next chapter will have lots, I promise.

Cid was riding onboard the _Madain Sari_. It was a new line of airships different from the _Hilda_ series, and was named for the sake of his recently adopted daughter. It ran on steam power, but it was smaller and sleeker in design then the _Hilda_'s. It also had a special open-topped chamber on top that could channel the power of the summoner to allow a more powerful Eidolon to come forth when called. It had been designed as a flagship for his daughter and him, should the need ever arise. It seemed as though this was finally going to pay off.

When Cid had heard that the Iifa Tree was missing, his immediate reaction was to think of Eiko. She was in the Black Mage Village, last he knew, and that was very close to the Iifa Tree; or where it used to be, at any rate. Something could have happened to her, even if she was in the company of Vivi. As it was, his curiosity got the better of him, so he first flew to the Iifa Tree's location. What he saw was that a massive amount of Mist-like stuff was floating up out of a crater where the mighty tree used to be. It boggled the mind. He could barely even concentrate. After calming down to think about it, he realized that the only way to figure out what it meant was to descend down into that crater. First things first, of course; he needed to find Eiko.

The _Madain Sari_ had the nifty ability to lower down a shaft from its bow that could serve as an elevator down to the ground. Thus, Cid needed only to hover over the Black Mage Village to get down into it, especially since the trees were so thin in the area around it. He entered the village with a few guards behind him, and located one of the black mages.

"Excuse me, do you know where my daughter, Eiko, is?" he asked. The black mage just shook his head. "No. I think one of the Genomes knows, though," he said, then continued on his passing way. As it happened, one of the Genomes had overheard this, and approached him.

"You are looking for Eiko? She has gone to the Iifa Tree, and should be on her way back," he stated, plain and simple. Cid's jaw dropped. After popping it back into place, he gave a quick thank-you, then hurried back to the airship. He knew that she very well could be along the way, even despite what he had seen there, so they cruised along slowly over the mountain path. And sure enough, they saw the bloodstained dirt accompanied with the many fallen bodies. The _Madain Sari_ was set down quickly, and Cid and company rushed into Conde Petie to see what the situation was.

Mikoto was still resting; Eiko and Vivi had finished tending to their wounds, and were now assessing the inventory of the fallen warriors. Vivi was examining one of the blaster weapons, while Eiko tried on a pair of claws. Cid took notice, and rushed over.

"Eiko! Are you all right? What happened here?" he asked in a hurried voice. When Eiko's mind registered the fact that someone was speaking to her, she looked at the source of the voice. Mind kicking back up again, she noticed that it was Cid, and dropped the weapons to rush up to him and give him a hug.

"Father! It was so awful!"

"There, there, Eiko. It's all right. Tell me, what happened? Are you all right?"

She nodded, then released him from the hug and sighed deeply.

"Well... Vivi and me went to go look at the Iifa Tree, and I don't remember exactly what happened after we left Conde Petie; we just found ourselves resting in the beds here, and then Mikoto woke us up. The next thing we knew, our magic was gone; we couldn't use it at all, and these weird people in white clothes came up here. They said that they wanted to 'take us into perfection', and that if we didn't oblige, they would kill us! So Mikoto attacked one of them, and.... Well, soon it was a free-for-all. The dwarves here all helped in the fight, and Vivi and I did our best as well, and Mikoto was really amazing. She finished them off when she Tranced, and then she had to rest, so she's in bed right now. And, we were just looking at the weapons they were carrying. Vivi seems to think that they might have something to do with the mysterious disappearance of our magic."

Cid had listened silently the whole time, but not out of respect; rather, he had been unable to speak. After a short while, he was able to recompose himself and further the inquiry.

"Eiko... where did these people come from?" he asked.

"Well, they came from the mountain path, so that means either from Madain Sari or the Iifa Tree. Of course, both of those places are ridiculous to consider. So we've also been trying to fig-"

She had continued, but Cid was no longer listening. So... the Iifa Tree was gone, mysterious people were trying to subjugate the dwarves, and they came from the area that the Iifa Tree was in. Or had been in, at any rate. The two events were just too strange to not be connected. Cid turned this over and over in his head. What to do? It seemed they were hostile, so they should probably be destroyed. But how massive were they? What was their true strength? What was their connection with the Iifa Tree? Finally, Eiko brought him back to reality with a shake.

"Father! You were staring straight ahead and mumbling some things. Are you okay?" she asked.

"Oh! Yes, of course. Eiko... when do you think Mikoto will be back to normal?" he responded.

Before Eiko could speculate, a hand on his shoulder made him turn around to see Mikoto. "I'm fine, Regent."

"I see that. That is good. Eiko has told me all about the... incident... that took place here. I have some more information, but I would like to share it with everyone onboard the _Madain Sari_. That means Zidane, Freya, Amarant, the entire bunch."

Mikoto wore a skeptic look. "Really? Well, what could possibly be so important?"

"Trust me. This is important."

Mikoto figured that the Regent of a city like Lindblum wouldn't be kidding about something like this. So, Vivi, Mikoto and Eiko followed Cid, Vivi taking the blaster along with him, onto the _Madain Sari_. They flew towards Alexandria, hoping they could catch the _Red Rose 3_ before it left the Mist Continent; it would be easiest to pick everyone up that way. As they flew, Vivi couldn't help but ask Regent Cid a few things.

"Can't you just tell us what it is? If it's something really surprising, it will be easier to keep everything under control to tell us now," he mentioned.

"Yeah! Tell us!" Eiko pleaded. Cid finally gave in.

"Very well. It concerns the Iifa Tree... you see, it is no longer there."

As he said this, Mikoto practically froze in shock, while Vivi and Eiko just paused and became thoughtful, though in a somewhat pained way. And as they did, their memories of the previous times started to rebuild themselves. Suddenly, it began to fall back into place for Vivi.

"Of course! I remember, now!" he exclaimed.

"What? What do you remember?" Cid asked, Mikoto just waiting for the answer and Eiko still thinking.

"What happened when we went to see the Iifa Tree. It wasn't there. Instead there was a bunch of fog. And, Eiko and I went to explore it, and.... Shoot. I'm drawing up blanks." Vivi shrugged. Suddenly, Eiko had a burst of epiphany as well.

"Oh yeah! We went down this elevator thing that was just like the one in the Iifa Tree! And then something screamed at me for being nice... or something like that... ah, that's all."

Mikoto continued to listen, while Cid attempted to jog their memories by asking some questions. "Did you meet anyone down there... like the people you fought at Conde Petie?" he asked.

"Oh... I think so, but... oh, gee, I can't remember exactly. Oh well," Vivi said, sighing. 

"That's it!" Eiko shouted.

All three of the others, in unison, asked, "What's it?"

"O! That was the name of the freaky guy who we first met down there! And he stole our magic! And he tried to turn us into one of those... things, which we fought! Remember, Vivi?"

"Yeah! That's right! I remember! And then, we tried to escape... and then fell asleep. Next I knew; we were in Conde Petie, and I couldn't remember a thing. What do you think happened, Eiko?" Mikoto and Cid were both silent for the sake of the conversation. Eiko shook her head.

"I don't know. Maybe we were just too hard for them to crack?" she suggested.

"Maybe... but wouldn't they then have killed us? He said we would be discarded if we didn't join them."

"How should I know? I guess they just didn't want anything to look suspicious, so they wiped our memories and transported us out."

"But isn't that a little obvious? I mean, they were just about to attack the place they transported us to. Not any smarter then letting us live in the first place."

"Who knows? I think that all of those people are stupid! And I say we get Dagger to call on Odin and have him lance the place to smithereens!" she shouted. Mikoto stepped in now.

"But, how will you get your magic back if you destroy the people who know how to restore it?" she asked.

Eiko shook her head, sighing. "No! Don't you see it doesn't matter? They're trying to take over the world! We have to defend it!"

Suddenly, Vivi remembered one more thing. "Wait. Didn't they say something about Necron? Yeah, it was something about being the opposite of him. Doesn't that make them... well... really strong? I don't think a single summoning will work. Not entirely, anyway."

"So?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well... I guess you have a point there. Really, unless we want to join their loveless and friendless society, we don't have a choice, do we?" 

Everyone shook his or her head.

"Right then. We flush 'em out with an Eidolon, and then we pick 'em off with cannon fire! We'll show those freaks that they can't come around pushing 'perfection' on us. Right?"

Mikoto agreed with a loud "Right!" Cid nodded, and said, "Well put, Eiko."

Vivi just stared at her solemnly for a bit, then looked up at the sky. Eiko had never been this violent before... maybe she was upset about something. Or maybe that battle had changed her. At any rate, there were more important things to worry about now. The airship had reached the Mist Continent; or, as it was now being called, the Hero's Continent, and the _Red Rose 3_ was still just taking off from the Alexandrian airship dock. It had taken time for Zidane and Dagger to prepare to leave, but fortunately they had quite a number of people capable of holding Alexandria stable while they went off to explore something. Steiner and Beatrix, also recently wed, were with them, of course. By the time the ship had left the Alexandrian portion of the continent, the _Madain Sari_ was in close proximity. Recognizing the Lindblum flagship, it was easy for them to pull within speaking distance of each other.

"Oy! Regent Cid! What are you doing here?" asked one of the crew onboard the _Rose_. 

"We must speak with the King and Queen. It is extremely urgent."

"I see. I will get them right away."

The crewmember disappeared into the depths of the ship. In the mean time, the others just stood there, pawing the deck softly and gazing about, thoughts wondering everywhere. Shortly after, Zidane and Dagger appeared, dressed in their fighting clothes. It seemed they thought something fishy was up as well.

"Uncle Cid! So good to see you again," Dagger said, bowing.

"Been staying out of trouble, I see. Still human," Zidane snickered. Cid ran a finger through his moustache.

"And I see that even being a king hasn't changed you one bit. I must say, that is truly impressive. But, we must dispense with the pleasantries; there are serious matters that must be discussed. I also want to get Freya, Fratley, Amarant and Quina in on it. I think we will need their help, and it will be easier to explain it to everyone at once."

"Oh? Is it really that bad? Then I guess we should find them, shouldn't we?"

"Indeed."

* * *

Eventually, everyone had been gathered in a campsite just outside of Treno. It was far too crowded to hold a meeting in that city, so they just enjoyed the chill night air outside as the discussion began. They were all sitting around a fire, just like in the good old days.

"Well. I'm sure that most of you are wondering why we've called you here," Cid announced. Quina wasn't really paying attention; s/he was too busy roasting some bird s/he had caught in Treno. Everyone else mumbled a yes or nodded.

"Very well then. We have a situation in the Outer Continent. Vivi? Eiko? Tell them about it," he said, handing the floor over to them.

"Right, father. You see Vivi and I were just going to take a curiosity peek at the tree. But when we got there, it was gone, and this weird fog was all over the place."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone? It can't just disappear, can it?" Freya shouted.

"Heh. My guess is that someone powerful just wanted to show off," Amarant suggested. 

"But why would someone do something like that?" Dagger wondered.

"I don't know, why don't we let Eiko and Vivi finish explaining?" Fratley concluded. 

"Thank you, Sir Fratley. Now, we explored the crater that the Tree had been rooted in, and uncovered quite a few facts. The Tree was incinerated by the impact of an inter-planetary transport device. And there are thousands... millions, maybe more, of people who have made a home in a cavern system down there. Vivi?"

"Thank you. We asked as many questions as we could of the one person who wasn't asleep. Unfortunately, our magic had been sucked right out of us by some weird thing. We still can't use it. We learned that they were here to 'preserve life under perfection'. Basically, they wanted us to become little more then emotionless drones. Of course we said no, and we tried to escape, as he threatened to kill us if we did not join his people. But something put us to sleep, and the next thing we knew, we were in Conde Petie. From there, an attack force of these people showed up, and tried to take the Dwarves into their 'perfection'. We fought back, and thanks to Mikoto, we won. But it was close. Anything you'd like to add, Eiko, Mikoto?"

Mikoto did. "Yes. These fighters possessed a very high level of skill. They are far superior in training to the soldiers of Alexandria or Lindblum; I know this because for a moment, they actually held the advantage over me. And, I also know for a fact that I am at least as skilled as Zidane was when he went after Kuja, possibly more so. As you can see, these are no ordinary fighters."

Now Eiko had something to say, over the slight grumbling of Cid and Beatrix.

"Also, we don't know how many of them they might have. What we saw was probably just a small detachment; before they sent us away from the cavern, we were told that they had an entire branch of warriors; I imagine that they probably have one warrior for every fifteen citizens. That gives them quite a large army..."

Everyone except Quina was looking down, considering this. After Quina finished munching the bird, s/he had something to say.

"Quina say we cook scary people! Maybe they taste good!"

Everyone gave an awkward stare to Quina, and then Cid had a few things to say.

"Er, yes, that was the general idea. These people are here to subjugate us and take us into a life that we do not want. So, our only choice is to destroy them. They won't be sent away, I am sure, and they won't be convinced to leave us alone. So, it's either them or us. I say that it should be them. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?"

There was silence, all around. 

"Good, then. I have already made out a plan of attack in my head. First..."

Late into the night, the plan was laid down, discussed, reformed, re-laid, and run through, until they finally had the perfect strategy. Of course, there was a fatal flaw in every strategy, and theirs was no exception. That flaw was the assumption that they knew more then the enemy. In this case, they were rather mistaken. Their enemy knew much more then they did. Despite Eiko and Vivi's wish to take the Dwarves away from Conde Petie with them on the _Madain Sari_, they had chosen to stay. They had said that they loved the place too much to leave it, and would sooner die defending it then let scum like the Clariyans take it over. As it happened, both events occurred; the Dwarves were now dead, and Conde Petie had become an outpost for the servants of Mistress Clariya.

The Mistress continued to ponder her strategy. She knew all about the Eidolons; she had, thusly, erected a shield against such things around the crater. She knew also that a full force attack would probably be headed her way. However, it would have to get in first, and the space down there was so narrow that the advantage could surely be hers. Defending that position was probably the easiest thing in the history of military skirmishes, in fact. It was almost too easy; she didn't like it. Something didn't quite fit.

Perhaps it was that ever-nagging feeling about the power possessed by those 8 on this planet. They would likely be coming at her all at once; that would not do at all. She needed someway to split them up. She didn't ponder too long before her answer came to her. And it was truly a wonderful answer indeed. Clariya relished in her perfection; her perfect design, perfect drive, and perfect mind. Soon, there would be nothing to rival her, and the everlasting perfection of life would be hers at long last. She let out a hysterical cackle; one that she herself could only here vaguely before the darkness about her swallowed it up. 


	8. Decimation, Restoration

NEXT CHAPTER! Guess what? Massive fighting in this one! BOOYA! Brace yourselves.

Dawn approached Conde Petie with an odd calm. The warriors who now held it were preparing an attack on the Black Mage Village. All through the night, they had been constructing a weapon with which to assault the place. After the horrible skirmish that had occurred with the dwarves, they were being more careful. About 13 hours earlier, they had asked the Black Mages and Genomes to join their society. When the answer was, surprisingly to them, no, they fell back. All of that black magic present in the village was too much for them to compete with. So, they had been building a device with which to decimate the place from a distance.

It was a cannon of sorts, but instead of aiming a projectile, it focused magical energy. All of the warriors could use some magic, though some were specialized in it and others were just learning. They had fitted it with a sniper-scope, and had it aimed straight for the village. All they could see was a faint bulge of forest out from the horizon line, but it was enough. With that information, they could adjust the ark and angle of the weapon to send a blast straight into the village. After getting the aim perfect, they poured all of their magic into the weapon. With one final check, the order was given, and the blast of magical energy soured over the land. In a very short amount of time, it landed right on target. The dome of forest that was the Black Mage Village burned, and soon enough it spread throughout the entire forest.

Though this incredibly destructive weapon had succeeded in decimating the target, the Clariyan warriors had failed to count on one thing. There were no Black Mages or Genomes present in the village. 

Earlier that night, Mikoto, Vivi, Eiko, Zidane and Dagger had gone into the village and evacuated it. They knew that it might become a target, but there was another reason. The Black Mages were just that, and had powerful magic to accompany them, even if they almost never used it. And the Genomes were as good of warriors as anyone; surely they would be useful in any major battles. As it happened, the Genomes were on board the _Madain Sari_ with the Black Mages, Eiko, Vivi, Dagger, Zidane and Cid. The others were riding on the _Red Rose 3_. They were now going to put their plan into action.

Even after so many years of peacetime, the armies of Lindblum and Alexandria were mobilized at an incredible speed. Both of them had boarded dropships, and sailed to the closer side of the Outer Continent, thus landing on the north face of the plains that the Iifa Tree used to be on. They had all unloaded, and as dawn came, they began their slow approach to the crater. They didn't want to be too close, because there was going to be quite a lot of damage occurring there. The _Red Rose 3_ and _Madain Sari_ were not alone, either; they had the combined airship forces of Lindblum and Alexandria right behind them. They were presently moving in on Conde Petie.

As they discovered when they had evacuated the Black Mages and Genomes, Conde Petie had indeed been taken over. So, their first objective would be to defeat the bogies there. Those particular bogies knew that a fight would be coming soon, and thus had mounted sentries all over the place. It would do them no good, however. Way back when Queen Brahne had Dagger's Eidolons, and had summoned Bahamut, he had been given quite the boost in strength due to the magic of the Black Mages. Dagger was fully aware of this, and so were most of the others.

As such, Dagger found herself in the summoning chamber of the _Madain Sari_. The Black Mages, though somewhat reluctantly, poured their energy into the chamber, fueling Dagger with enough energy to make her sick. What really bothered her was that they would be doing this again; but it had to be done. Raising her summoning rod upwards, the massive amounts of magical energy cackling about the camber suddenly shot into the sky, and the King of Dragons came bursting out of a fiery circle in the sky. The sentries in Conde Petie noticed, of course, but their shots did them no good. With a massive roar, Bahamut launched ball after ball of flare energy at the building. Some people inside started running away, but the ground seemed to life up under their feet and send them flying into the valley below. The others just watched on gravely, Vivi and Eiko holding each other by the hand.

For good measure, Bahamut drew in closer, then charged up for the Mega Flare. In a blinding flash of light, Conde Petie, and all of those within, were no more. The damage done, Bahamut soared back high into the atmosphere, and left in another spectacular flash of energy. Dagger, despite the massive amount of power she had used to call such a powerful Bahamut, was feeling full of energy, though rather woozy. She exited the chamber, and was given a congratulatory hug from her husband Zidane.

"Good job, Dagger. That took a lot of guts," he said, releasing her from the embrace.

"Ugh. Please, don't mention guts right now. I feel like mine are about to have a massive shift," she pleaded. Zidane edged away somewhat nervously. That taken care of, the battalion of airships moved in on the crater.

Mistress Clariya was well aware of the army approaching her from the north and the armada approaching her from the south. She was confident that the airships were nothing to worry about, however, since the only thing they had onboard were summoners, one of who had lost that ability. Their cannons wouldn't do any good, and her shield would ensure safety from the Eidolons. However, the army worried her some. It was likely to be stronger in force then her warriors and she had less available then she had planned. The warriors lost in Conde Petie had been a surprise to her; the strength of the Eidolon was something she had, like many others, underestimated.

Still, Clariya was confident that her shield would hold up. And as far as the army was concerned, she had a few tricks up her sleeve. The colored rings along the inside of the crater wall could actually generate energy quite similar in nature to that of the Ultima spell. As the enemy army descended, those rings would activate, and a huge chunk of the army would be burned to ash. It was truly a shame that so many lives had to be wasted for her goal of perfection, but it had to be done. They were infidels, and would never be worthy of living under her rule. And since she would rule everything with time, it meant that they were not worthy of living.

As she went over this, there was suddenly a massive rumble.

"What is going on?" she shouted to the darkness. An image appeared in front of her, and showed a massive cloud of energy swirling over the crater that her people resided in. The _Red Rose 3_ was unloading massive amounts of some kind of cargo into the crater, while many small forms on the _Madain Sari_ were waving their arms about, and seemed to be making the energy cloud bigger in doing so. Suddenly, and without warning, a massive comet fell out of the energy cloud, and rocketed down into the depths of the crater. It moved so fast, she could barely see it, but it did indeed crush her Eidolon shield. Within moments, there was another amazing crash, and another image in the darkness appeared. It showed a massive explosion in the hollows of the crater; when the dust cleared, she saw her colored rings were completely destroyed.

"Curse them! I will show them not to mess with perfection!" she cried. Thus began a new attack.

"Keep throwing down the gunpowder! Dagger's gonna call another Eidolon, so we need to give it as much boom as possible!" called out Amarant to the crewmembers on the _Red Rose 3_. And that was exactly what they did; crate after crate of gunpowder was hurled over the edge of the airship, and down into the cavern. And, Dagger did prepare to call forth another Eidolon. However, something interrupted them.

The crates of gunpowder began floating up out of the crater and into the sky near the airships. And, soon after, a blast of energy shot into them, making a massive explosion. The airships rocked madly, and became uncontrollable. They flew towards each other, and before another thing could be done, they crashed in midair. As if it wasn't all bad enough, another blast of energy came up, and both airships seemed to evaporate. All of the people onboard were somehow unharmed, however; but that didn't stop them from falling straight down into the maw of the crater.

As the armies of Lindblum and Alexandria looked on, Beatrix could see no reason to hold back any longer. Steiner was not there; he was supposed to be protecting Dagger, but somehow got stuck on the wrong ship. All Beatrix new was that her lover was gone; and all because of those... those things! She turned to face the armies, and drew her sword high into the air.

"Attack!" she cried, turning around and rushing towards the crater. One by one, the rest of the army ran after her, each person seeing the one in front of them moving, so naturally moving with them. It was at this point, as the heroes fell and the army charge forward, that something changed. Vivi and Eiko clutched to each other, both of them crying softly, despite the urge to scream at the top of their lungs. And suddenly, a white light enveloped both of them, as well as all of the others who were falling. They stopped falling, and instead floated in midair. Vivi and Eiko looked about wildly.

"What happened?" Eiko asked. "Are we dead?"

Vivi shook his head. "No. We're... floating. It's the float spell."

"What? But that can't be! Dagger doesn't know float! Does she?" Eiko asked, staring into Vivi's eyes, tears still present in hers.

"No.... Not from her. From you. We've got our magic back, Eiko!" Vivi exclaimed.

"What! But, I didn't even do anything! How could I have cast float on so many people without even trying?" Eiko asked, incredibly confused.

"Instinct, I guess. But really! I have mine back. See?" he said, holding a hand up and forming a ball of fire in it.

"Woh! We really DO have our magic back! This is great!" she said, hugging Vivi again.

"Well, I guess, but how do we get out of this situation?" he said, hugging back for a moment before releasing her to look around.

"Um... I don't know."

Before anymore could be said, the white glow around them changed to a black one, and with a flash of darkness, they all disappeared from the space in the crater quite suddenly. Once eyes adjusted to the sudden shift in light, they found themselves in what seemed to be an endless space of black. Somehow, they were all illuminated, however. Meanwhile, back on the surface, the ground forces were encountering some trouble. Somehow, a few of the Iifa Tree's old roots had lifted out of the ground, and were attacking the soldiers.

The airships that had avoided the attack from within the crater laid down quite a lot of suppressing fire, but the roots didn't seem to be affected. Rather then waste time trying to stop the things' rampage, the soldiers thus just ran forward, trying to avoid it. Even Beatrix's Shock technique did nothing but chip off a few pieces; she could not comprehend it. If the Iifa Tree was gone, how could its roots be alive and moving about? Who was controlling them? Well, she would find that out soon enough, but not if she let those things get to her. So, she and the rest of the army continued onward, counting on the airships to distract the roots.

Eventually, it worked. The cannon fire was simply too much for the dying things, but they had done a fair amount of damage before they became lifeless lumps again. However, the zeal of Gaia's defenders would not be wavered by such setbacks. The entire army poured into the crater, and slid down the walls. The elevator was, of course, destroyed now; however, the explosion had made a number of useful pathways out of the rock. Thus, it wasn't very hard to make it down, especially since nothing else was there to stop them, with the exception of the warriors; Mistress Clariya was concerned with other matters.

When the heroes had fallen out of the airships, she was counting on their destruction. When the mages had mysteriously reacquired their magic, and started to float, she became infuriated. After calming down to think about it, she realized that the device that was containing their magic had probably been destroyed during the blast; still, she was amazed that they could figure that out so quickly. At any rate, they were in her territory at that point, and she held the power there. So, she quickly transported them in to her chamber, scattering them as well. They would not be able to keep safe from her wrath without each other for support.

"Oh... my head. Where am I?" Eiko asked to the empty space. The darkness seemed to swallow up her every word.

"Zidane? Freya? Dagger? Vivi? Hello?" she called out in despair. There was no answer; only the silence of her words being sucked up by the coldness around her.

Everyone else was in a similar situation. Vivi was now walking in a random direction in the hope that he would find someone. "Eiko? Amarant? Mikoto? Hello, can anyone hear me?" he shouted. _Man, what awful luck_, he thought to himself. He thought he felt a chill breeze blow across the air.

"Is someone there?" he called out. Quite suddenly, he ran into something he couldn't really see. Like some sort of invisible wall, or something. He pounded on it, but it didn't give in. He heard it echo, though, and unlike any other sound made here, it was loud and clear. He stood in thought for a moment, then concluded that he might find something on the other side. So, he stepped back from the invisible barrier, and aimed two palms at it.

"Flare!" he shouted. The beginnings of the energy started to head for the wall, but it bounced right off and went back at Vivi. The energy smashed into him, and the heat burned his clothes. After the attack subsided, Vivi just stared at the thing with a high level of confusion present in his face. Fortunately, he was a lot tougher these days then he was back when he had first learned how to cast Flare. So, he wasn't hurt too badly. 

"Reflect, huh? Weird," he said, searching his pockets for an X-Potion. He found one eventually, and slurped the tangy mixture down.

"Ahh... much better."

Deciding to look around some more, Vivi turned one hundred eighty degrees around on his heel, then practically collapsed. For he saw standing there, though some distance away, none other then Mistress Clariya. Of course, he had no idea who she was, but he had dealed with the terrain enough that he understood how massive she must be. And then, though the voice seemed distant, he heard an innocent voice coming from her direction.

"Perfection will be attained. You, however, are not invited."

Vivi stood there almost petrified with fear. Meanwhile, the army had reached the cavern entrances, and the fighting had begun. Sword upon sword, spell upon spell, beam upon flesh, and claw upon shield, the battle raged. Zidane, Dagger, Eiko, Mikoto and the others simply wandered about the darkness, in a vain attempt at finding each other, though all the time praying and hoping for the others to be all right. Vivi backed away slowly from the approaching monster, then had a comforting reminder that escape was not probably impossible as he felt the invisible wall. Then, he heard the voice again.

"Do not worry. Life is not meant to be painful; your death shall come quickly," it stated. Oh, great, Vivi thought. Another person wants to kill me. He decided, however, that if was going to go down, he would do it fighting. Wishing his friends good luck should he fail, he aimed his palms once again, this time at the titan who sought to kill him. The challenge was set.

"Come and get some!"

I finish in the next chapter. Maaaybe REVIEW! Pleeeease. 


	9. Life and Death, Love and Sorrow

Behold! The finale approaches. Didn't I tell you it would be worth it? Read. 

(Beware: Mush/Fluff present, maybe sap as well)

"Beatrix, look behind you!" a soldier called out. Whipping around at amazing speed, she sent the Save the Queen smashing through the skull of someone who had been about to send a clawed fist through her neck. Sending a kick backwards, she nailed someone who had come to close in the gut. With that done, she got back on two feet and barely blocked the swing of a sword at her arm. Staring down the warrior for a moment in the tangled sword position, another soldier came to her aid and sent a sword through his back.

"General, Ma'am, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Stay sharp, we aren't clear yet!" Beatrix responded, charging at an oncoming mage. She barely dodged a fireball, and got a slight singe on her outfit.

"I'll teach you to burn me, vermin!" she shouted, and her sword once again found home in Clariyan flesh. The battle continued to rage on above, but below, things weren't quite as unstable. Yet, anyway.

Eiko tapped on the invisible thing she had found. It made an odd echo that she could hear easily, despite the odd tendency of the darkness to suck up noise. 

"I sure hope Vivi's okay," she said, trying to figure out what this thing was for. Vivi and Clariya had reached a stare down. As Clariya made her next step towards Vivi, he could wait no longer.

"Meteor!" he shouted, energy swirling out of his palms and into the space above Clariya. She simply smirked, and as the huge piece of rock formed, it bounced right off of her, and went straight for Vivi. However, Vivi had been expecting this. He jumped over to the side, and the Meteor smashed right into the invisible wall. With a huge whining noise, the wall finally gave way, shattering as it did so. Imagine Eiko's surprise when the huge piece of rock seemed to appear out of nothing on the other side!

"Hey! That looks like one of Vivi's spells! Vivi! Are you there?" she called out, rushing towards the gap in the wall. Clariya's fingers were now all fully outstretched, and two balls of energy formed in the palms of her hands. Vivi could just barely her Eiko, and he figured that running towards her would be safer. Rushing out through the gap he had created, he ran right into an embrace with Eiko, and before they could stop themselves their lips had met as well. Clariya could tell; such passion harmed her. It interrupted her thought process, but before she could even figure out what to do next, the energy she had formed in her palms had shot off towards Eiko and Vivi.

As the two mages broke their hold on each other, they turned to see the approaching blasts. They would have no time to do anything, not reflect, not to run, so instead they just stood there, holding each other. Once the energy reached them, however, something happened. It was a neutral kind of energy that Clariya had shot off at them, as her concentration was too broken for her to make it negative in charge. But the love that Eiko and Vivi felt for each other was so great, that it emitted a positive energy field around them. Neutral charges acquire the charge of things that they approach, so as the balls were about to smash into them, they became positive. Eiko and Vivi both got a glimpse at the glowing balls of destruction before the like charges repelled each other. The energy flew back at Clariya.

Before she could even rise up hands to block, she was hit smack-dab in the face, and it knocked her over. The entire place seemed to shake; even Beatrix and the army noticed it. As she finished retracting her blade from the side of a fallen Clariyan, the vibration had reached her, and she almost fell flat on her face.

"What in the Queen's name was that?" one soldier nearby her asked. Shrugging, Beatrix replied. "Don't worry about it! We haven't won yet; here come some more!" she called out, ducking just in time to avoid having her forehead melted off by a blaster weapon. Quite suddenly, however, those blaster-wielding soldiers were knocked down by what was obviously a high-level wind spell. Beatrix did a double take; there weren't any Black Mages up here, were there? When the pointy-hated fighters trotted into view, some still aiming fireballs at wandering Clariyan warriors, her question was answered. Clariya had not had enough time to give an accurate location of transport for each of those floating in the crater; as such, a number of Genomes and Black Mages had appeared in some distant section of the tunnels. Though Beatrix had no idea what was going on, she was glad for the support. She had worked with Black Mages before, and these guys were obviously at a much higher level of magic. It was rather comforting, in fact.

Clariya moaned as she stood up. Those two! How had she been deceived into letting them reach each other? And why were they so powerful? Not even a Reflect spell should have been able to bounce her energy back at her! She would make them pay. Oh, their death would no longer be quick. Even if she was supposed to preserve all life under perfection, those two had lost the privilege of her mercy. She was so furious; she didn't even know what sort of horrible thing she should do to them. She did come up with something for starters, however. First she would make them beg for their lives. Once again sending her reach towards them, she used psychic force to blow then back. 

Vivi and Eiko had just been staring into each other's eyes at the time. When the force hit them, they were both caught quite off guard, and went flying a few yards before landing hard on their sides, though still holding on to each other with just one hand. Clariya then appeared towering above them, with an outstretched hand fixed over their position. Without any more warning, the ground seemed to life up from underneath Vivi and Eiko, and a sudden blast of energy, burst out from the bulge, launching the two into the air. Despite the pain that rocked through their bodies, they still held on to each other. Before their descent began, Clariya held a hand out, and they started floating at eye level with the monster.

Vivi and Eiko's hands still clutching each other, they reached a weakened standing position in the float. When they saw Clariya's face, they practically puked, and would have if they weren't so taxed of energy. Her eyes were bloodshot and bugged out, and blood was trickling down from numerous places on her cheeks. It was a shiny, purplish substance, and a portion of her nose seemed to be partially avulsed. Pushing some bedraggled hair out of her face, Clariya cackled in hysteria.

"Now, beg for mercy! Let me hear you grovel before I continue your torture!" she managed to get through her laughing. Eiko fell into Vivi, her knees having buckled, but he stood there and held her. Eiko stared Clariya in the face, then stuck her tongue out.

"Never! You've just a mean old UGLY hag!" she said. Clariya's cackling turned quickly into a choking sound.

"What did you say? Why you insolent brat! I am Mistress Clariya; I am perfection! How DARE you call me ugly! RAAH!"

With her scream, the float spell seemed to vanish, and a blast of force sent them rocketing backwards, so quickly that their descent took a while to begin, and even then was slow.

"Vivi... what are we going to do?" Eiko asked through sobs of pain.

"Just... hold me. At the very least, we'll die in each other's arms. We're husband and wife, right? Though the circumstances aren't exactly right, we're supposed to go in an embrace," Vivi said, wrapping his arms around her.

"Oh... Vivi... you're so sweet."

She too wrapped her arms around him, and she began to cry on his shoulder. Clariya watched in a vicious malice as those two insects plummeted to their death. But, they were holding each other! It made her sick. And quite suddenly, something happened; a bright white light appeared from Vivi and Eiko. It spread out to what seemed to be Clariya's entire chamber, and in an almost blinding flash, Eiko and Vivi were revealed floating. But, they were glowing as well, but it wasn't a white glow; it was rather more like iridescence. Vivi and Eiko floated there, right hand of one in the left of the other, and vice versa, the glow of Trance wrapped around them both.

At this time, Beatrix and the remainder of the army were cleaning out the caverns. It seemed as though they had, for the most part, succeeded. No warriors seemed to be left alive, but a few could still be hiding. And so the search continued. Also continuing was the massive amount of confusion experienced by those in Clariya's chamber.

"Vivi... what is this? It doesn't feel like a normal Trance," Eiko pointed out.

"I know. I think we're sharing each other's Trance power. I can feel more of your energy inside me then ever before," Vivi suggested. At the same time, their heads snapped from looking at each other to the enraged Clariya. Somehow, all of their health was back.

"What are we going to do about her?" Vivi asked, wonderment replaced by seriousness on both of their faces.

"I say we pool both of our magic into a single spell. I bet that the combination of Tranced black and Tranced white will do something worth note!" Eiko suggested. Vivi nodded in agreement.

"Right then. Let's show that freak what togetherness is all about!"

"Yeah!"

The doubled ability of white magic and black magic that Eiko and Vivi now possessed was something spectacular indeed. But, when they sent their energy pulsing into each other's hands, eventually stepping back from each other to allow some space between their hands, the power became almost indefinable. Clariya had been charging up a massive ball of negative energy through this time in her two hands, and was just about ready to rifle it off at the two mages. They both stared in amazement at the pulsing energy forming between them. When they saw the movement of Clariya out of the corner of their eyes, they both turned to look at the oncoming attack. And, quite suddenly, two words entered both of their minds.

"ULTIMA LOVE!" they shouted. With yet another massive flash of light, the energy between them glowed purple, then green, and pushed them back and away, though in a soft way. The negative energy ball collided with the energy the Vivi and Eiko had created, and stopped dead in its tracks. The pulsing energy sucked up the negative attack, and grew in size. With one last massive flash of light, the purple blasts of magic shot out from the energy cloud. One after another, the magic beams smashed into the dumbfounded Clariya. She was knocked back, chunks of her flesh and clothing flying everywhere, until the last two bolts hit her. The first one went straight through her cold, black heart, and the second one pierced through her skull, right between the eyes. As if that wasn't enough, however, the spell was not done.

The energy cloud thinned itself out and slid into the hole made by the second to last blast of energy. Clariya still seemed to be just barely alive, but this would take care of that. Vivi and Eiko stared into each other's eyes, then back at Clariya, and shouted once again. "MEGA FLARE!" Clariya leaned back and seemed to scream at the ceiling, before the massive amounts of Flare energy exploded through her body. She was completely covered in flame, and just as it seemed she would melt into disgusting goo, one last massive blast incinerated every part of Mistress Clariya. The glow of Trance around Eiko and Vivi faded, but instead of falling down, they floated upwards. The entire room seemed to shake violently, but Eiko and Vivi never learned much more, because one more flash of light transported them out.

They landed in the cubical room that O had once used to ask Mistress Clariya for instructions. And, with a quick glance about the room, they noticed everyone from the airships was in the room with them. Zidane quickly spotted and rushed over to Eiko and Vivi.

"Hey! What the heck is going on here? What happened?" he asked. Quina suddenly appeared next to him from the crowd.

"Quina scared! There no munchies... ANYWHERE!"

Everyone gave Quina an odd look, then laughed a little uneasily. Suddenly, they felt a massive vibration.

"Uh oh. I think this place is about to blow! We gotta get out of here!" Eiko shouted. No one else was in a mood to argue, so they all ran out the only exit there was. Mikoto, the last person out, saw at the last moment an explosion sending the pedestal flying. Everyone was running already, so she had no need to tell them to run, but she did so anyway.

"Run!" she shouted. Somehow, they all picked up the pace. Rushing out at top speed, the reached the ruined platform with the fire cloud on their heels. Vivi and Eiko were in front, so they knew to go down the other corridor. As such, Mikoto was the only person to get even slightly burned as she rounded the corner, the explosion killing itself as it shot out into the space of the crater. They all stopped, panting heavily to catch their breath. 

"Well, looks like we made it... honey," Vivi said, laughing despite his heaving chest. Eiko burst out in laughter as well, and after they both had returned to normal breathing, they wrapped their arms around each other and kissed. Zidane and Dagger had located each other and were doing much the same. Everyone else was either resting or trying to figure out what the heck happened. Mikoto searched for Beatrix.

As she passed around a corner, she quite suddenly found a sword heading straight for her head. She just barely had time to pull her dagger out and send it away from her face, so when she saw that the person holding the sword was none other then Beatrix, she was rather surprised. Beatrix was even more surprised.

"Mikoto? How are you here? I saw your airship get struck by that energy blast! I though you were dead for sure!"

Mikoto shrugged. "I'm as clueless as you are. I think Vivi and Eiko have a clue of what's going on, though. I suppose we'll figure it out soon enough. Are there any of the freaks left?" she asked. Beatrix shook her head.

"Not likely. We've searched everywhere, and haven't found anything. Our losses were large, unfortunately, but we won! I just... wish that Steiner was here to see such a proud moment for the Knights of Pluto. They decided to join us in the fight, and they did better then I ever thought they could," she said, looking downward. Suddenly, there was a familiar sound of clanking armor, and a humble, formal voice greeted the General.

"Beatrix? Are you all right?" the captain asked. She looked up, and a smile lit across her face.

"Steiner! Is that really you? Please tell me that my imagination is not playing cruel tricks on me!" she called.

"Nay, I am what you see. I'm not quite sure how, but I knew that I needed to get back to you, and I survived."

"Steiner... I'm so happy!"

Beatrix threw down her sword, and the two officers of the Alexandrian army gave each other a hearty hug. Outside, the fog had dispersed to nothing, and the new day's sun shined brightly over the plains of Iifa. All through the caverns were mixed emotions of joy and sorrow, happiness and despair. For while the forces of good had won, and preserved the life and happiness of many, friends and lovers alike had been lost. It was a bittersweet ending to the story of the Clariyans; but something still echoed throughout the halls of the crater. It was Clariya's voice, and it whispered in agony.

"As long as there is life, I will be there to perfect it!" it said. No one really heard it though; they were all far too busy discussing the victory. Eiko and Vivi especially. She whispered something into Vivi's ear, and they both started giggling. Happy times were close in sight. 

And now, with that chapter done, I make you wait for the epilogue! HA! Don't worry, the epilogue chapter will be a good one. I already have it planned, I'm just too lazy to write it right now, plus my dad wants me to work. Can you believe that? It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and he wants me to do school. Oh well. Review please!


	10. Epilogue-All stories must end

Epilogue:

(Warning: Those who can't stand sappy/fluffy romance should probably turn back.)

PS

Enjoy

Two months later...

Everyone on Gaia now knew what had happened two months ago. The incident with the Clariyans, how they sought to enslave them all under the will of a single monster named Clariya, who had been destroyed by Eiko and Vivi. Well, defeated at any rate and they would not likely have to worry about her within their lifetime. It was presently three o'clock in Lindblum, and the bells of the chapel rang out to signify the time. Inside, there were other things taking place that would have bells ringing very soon.

Zidane, Freya, Amarant, Quina, Steiner, Tantalus, and the entire gang were all gathered in the chapel. All of them had their eyes fixed upon the two figures standing before the altar. Sitting close to them was another two figures: the best man and bride's maid. It was a marriage that had been suspected for some time by many people, though they hadn't quite expected it to happen so soon. After all, Eiko was only 14; but no one could convince the former-doctor-now-pastor Tot not to marry her to Vivi. So it was that they all sat there that afternoon, watching them pronounce their vows to each other.

The best man was Blank; really, he was one of Vivi's first and best friends in the world. The bride's maid was Mikoto, because she was like an older sister to Eiko, only in a nice way. Those two were the single exception to the nature of everyone to look only at Vivi and Eiko; on a rare occasion, they would send a certain glance at the other one. Pastor Tot was now taking the wedding to its final stage. He took Vivi's hand and placed it in his own.

"Vivi Ornitier, do you take this woman, Eiko Carol, to be your lawfully wedded wife? To hold and to love her, to comfort and support her, to appreciate her always, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

Though his palm was a little sweaty, and Vivi was rather uncomfortable wearing these formal clothes, he managed to look, for the most part, perfectly calm and relaxed. After gazing down into his wife-to-be's eyes, he looked back at Tot.

"I do."

Vivi's hand was released, and once more found its way into the grip of Eiko. Pastor Tot now took her hand, and proceeded to ask her the same question, though geared towards her. After a small choking sound and a powerful squeeze of Vivi's hand, she nodded weakly to Tot, though with a smile on her face.

"I do."

Her eyes turned back to Vivi once again, her hand being freed and seeking Vivi's. They gazed into each other's eyes as Tot continued the wedding. 

"Then, by the power vested in me by the Church of Lindblum, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride," he informed them. With next to no waiting whatsoever, Eiko and Vivi found themselves locked in an embrace with each other like none they had ever felt before, lips pressed together with a depth of the ocean. All around them they could hear the thunder of applause, but that was barely even noticed by them. They just continued the kiss for a while more, until finally they decided to get on with the reception. Breaking away from each other, Eiko called out to everyone: "Party at the castle!"

And with that, Vivi scooped her up into his arms, and rushed off to the awaiting air cab. The cans tied to the back clanked against each other noisily and happily, while the _Just married_ sign plastered all over the cab caught everyone's attention. And, when they reached the castle, there was a feast to rival those made after the Festival of the Hunt waiting for them. Their friends soon joined them, and the food was consumed by all throughout the more public part of the castle. After much jubilation, the food finally disappeared. Zidane and Dagger found Eiko and Vivi easily, (Eiko was wearing a dress; the enough was a dead give away), and had to ask them something.

"Where are you going for your honeymoon?" they asked.

Vivi and Eiko just laughed a bit, then responded, "Where else? We're going everywhere!"

"Everywhere? How are you going to do that?"

"Simple! We've got Choco, the Golden Chocobo!"

"Ah. Of course."

Suddenly, as if on cue, a guard rushed in.

"Look out, there's a massive bird running loose through the castle!"

The next thing they knew, they saw Quina rushing away with a Golden Chocobo on his tail.

"KWEEH!"

"No! Get away! Gyshal Pickle mine! Find your oooown!"

Somehow managing to ignore the destruction that Choco was obviously going to cause, the four friends laughed loudly.

"Eiko! I can't believe you let Choco in here!" Dagger said. Eiko replied with a dumb look.

"It wasn't me! Honest!"

"Well then, who was it?" Vivi asked. Zidane suddenly slunk back a little, hiding his face. Dagger sighed, then prepared to scold Zidane.

"Eiko, if your husband ever makes a mistake like this, just know that YOU have the right to punish him. Shame on you, Zidane!"

"Sorry, ma'am... Can't a guy have a little fun?"

Eiko and Vivi walked away, laughing, and getting Choco to come over to them. Vivi helped Eiko on, then jumped on as well. With a loud "KWEEH!" from Choco, they rushed out of the castle, and with a little help from Eiko's white magic, were in the air very soon. 

"So, honey, where do we go first?" Vivi asked, looking over Eiko's shoulder and into her face. She grabbed him by the collar to pull him in closer, then quite suddenly realized something.

"Oh my gosh! Our clothes! They were in the Black Mage Village... and... And they destroyed it! What are we gonna do?"

"Um. Turn around, I guess. Back to Lindblum, Choco! We have some clothes to buy!"

"Kweh!"

The End.

Unless you thought that ending was krappy, in which case I will redo it. Either way, PLEASE REVIEW! Thank you.


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